Weimar Berlin: Cabaret

A snapshot of Germany in the 1920s, in a programme that draws from three hugely successful theatrical works. Shostakovich visited Berlin from the Soviet Union in 1927 and set his ballet The Golden Age in the Weimar Republic.

Shostakovich met both Hindemith and Weill during his Berlin trip and declared that Hindemith was his favourite contemporary composer. Hindemith’s virtuosic, muscular Concerto for Orchestra is juxtaposed here with an orchestral suite from Weill’s Threepenny Opera, best known for the song ‘Mack the Knife’. Back in Russia, Shostakovich attended the first Soviet performance of Alban Berg’s opera Wozzeck, and fondly greeted its composer, who had become an international star following the 1925 premiere in Berlin.